Posted on 01/31/2004 9:29:15 PM PST by piasa
AN accused terrorism financier arrested in the US last week had just returned from a trip to Australia where he is believed to have a child.
But in a security blunder, the arrest took Australia's intelligence agencies, who were unaware the man was in Australia, by complete surprise.
Omar Abdi Mohamed, 41, is being investigated after allegedly receiving $454,866 from a group accused by US authorities of direct links to al-Qaida.
But Australian authorities were not told of any terrorist concerns surrounding Mr Mohamed before his most recent trip to Australia, which ended only last month.
"Obviously this person would not have been given a visa to visit Australia if the Government had been aware at the time of any links to terrorist organisations or activity," Attorney-General Philip Ruddock's spokesman, Steve Ingram, said.
Mr Mohamed, a Somali national and US resident, has been charged with lying to American immigration officials about receiving the $454,866, which was later tracked to money launderers active in the Middle East. A US court was told this week that in the past three years Mr Mohamed travelled four times to Australia, once to Africa and twice to Saudi Arabia.
He had been living in San Diego, California, with his wife and six children and was working as a part-time teacher's aide in a primary school.
But the court heard he has a second wife or girlfriend and a child in Australia. He is believed to have left Australia in December, after three months on a visitor's visa.
Assistant US Attorney John Parmley yesterday told the Herald Sun there was an on-going investigation of Mr Mohamed's activities since he entered the US illegally in 1995.
Mr Parmley said the US would not discuss many aspects of the case, but he assumed Australian authorities had been informed of the allegations.
Mr Mohamed, president of the San Diego-based Western Somali Relief Agency, is alleged to have received the money from the Global Relief Foundation, which has headquarters in Illinois.
The GRF had its assets frozen by the US Treasury after the September 11 attacks and was later officially branded a specially designated global terrorist group. US officials have accused it of raising funds for Osama bin Laden.
A senior Australian Government source said Mr Mohamed was not on any international watch-list. Mr Mohamed's lawyer, Kerry Bader, did not return calls from the Herald Sun but has earlier denied her client was involved in terrorism.
"There are hints and allegations of al-Qaida here, which would suggest violence, but we don't have any link," she said.
Somali pleads not guilty to lying about donation
He also made trips to China and is "president and founder of the Somali Youth and East African Center and of the Western Somali Relief Agency."
he is associated with the "Masjidul Taqwa" mosque and came here as a religious worker.
Hahaha...more like Palm Pilot him to death.
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